Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tyler) has filed a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence in the hope that it supports Pence in rejecting the Biden electors. Additional plaintiffs in the suit include Arizona Republican electors and citizens including Kelli Ward, Chair of the Arizona Republican Party.
Gohmert’s suit alleges that any action taken by Pence to formally declare Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election would be fraudulent. The suit states “This civil action seeks an expedited declaratory judgment finding that the elector dispute resolution provisions in Section 15 of the Electoral Count Act, 3 U.S.C. §§ 5 and 15, are unconstitutional because these provisions violate the Electors Clause and the Twelfth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
Gohmert’s suit objects to the counting of Arizona’s slate of Biden electors and to the Biden slates from the remaining Contested States. It states that when Congress convenes on January 6 to count the electoral votes and declare President-Elect Biden as the winner, Gohmert will formally object to the count which, the lawsuit states, is a privilege he is entitled to under the Twelfth Amendment. Further, Gohmert is also asking Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a district judge in Tyler, to find that Pence is legally authorized to choose pro-Trump electors on January 6, to declare that Pence has the “exclusive authority and sole discretion” to decide which electoral votes from a given state should be counted.
The Republican complaint claims that part of the 1887 Electoral Count Act should be declared unconstitutional as it clashes with the 12th Amendment. That amendment contains “the exclusive dispute resolution mechanisms,” the lawsuit claims, including that “Vice-President Pence determines which slate of electors’ votes count, or neither, for that state.”
The suit also asserts that “public reports” have “highlighted wide-spread election fraud” in battleground states, citing a document written by White House advisor Peter Navarro.
Twitter users mocked and threatened Gohmert for bringing the lawsuit.
@replouiegohmert Your Law Suit is Seditious. You should be censured.@SpeakerPelosi You need to handle this. Don’t let this slide; we’re all watching what you do. ‘Dumbest member of Congress’ Louis Gohmert mocked for ‘insane’ lawsuit against Mike Pence https://t.co/KRotiTRkVL
— August West – I’ll get a new start ?? (@GenDisdain) December 28, 2020
